A VISIT TO THE DOCTOR

Psalm 26
A VISIT TO THE DOCTOR
Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and my mind... (v.2)

Few of us like to visit a doctor, especially a specialist. I once met a renal specialist at a social function. Shaking his hands, I said with all honesty, "I am glad I am not meeting you in your professional capacity." He had been monitoring my kidney condition, and to be called up by him for an appointment can hardly be welcomed news.

However, visits to doctors (or for that matter, dentists) are necessary. To subject oneself to examination always leaves open the possibility that something may be found wrong. Yet, not to be examined for that reason is pure foolishness. If this is true for our physical health, how much more true of our spiritual health! Thus the psalmist calls on God to give him a spiritual check-up.

He lays his life open before God, spelling out what he has done and what he has not done (w.3-8). He has walked continually in the truth, and has not sat with deceitful men. From time to time, it is wise to run a check-list on ourselves. Have we done the things we ought not have done, or fail to do what we ought to do?

To visit our Great Physician is no light matter. We must be ready to let him put his stethoscope to our chest, and perhaps even a scalpel to our body. He sees beyond the surface to our innermost thoughts and intentions, as we say to him, "Examine my heart and my mind." Only when he gives us a clean bill of health can we go to say, "I lead a blameless life.... My feet stand on level ground; in the great assembly I will praise the LORD" (vv.11-12).

Time for a spiritual check-up?